RE: Anyone else notice this?KerBer,
I referred to that Press Release in the "fifth round" coverage. The thing that caught my eye was that Randy Miller had been named as contact on the previous press releases I noticed. On the one you refer to, Ian Stewart was the man. Maybe the Randy Man had enjoyed enough embarrassment for a while, and wanted his right hand man to get his fair share.
It may be a sign that this strategy has been moved down the list of priorities, and is now assigned to more junior personnel. With Miller, we had a $30,000 per month [plus expenses, car and office allowance] man dedicated to making management look inept. With the move to Ian, they can look foolish at a much lower cost. It is also very comforting to the shareholders to know that it isn't the high price guy running around chasing his tail - he's again resting up, to be ready to take on the big projects, if one ever comes along.
As for ISM reaffirming what they are going to do - don't take that too seriously. They have a long history of announcing planned activities, but a very short list of executing the announced plans. They have been committed for about four years to getting a dewatering permit required for deeper exploration of one of their prospects, three years to releasing a full economic study on their Langmuir property, about that long to dealing with First Nations issues, and coming up a year since they planned to spin-out their main asset - Langmuir, etc. etc. To ISM "commitment" does not in any way indicate urgency or priority - it's more of a long term idea of something that makes them look like they're doing something that might get done tomorrow - and "tomorrow" never comes. In a way, procrastination is not always negative. If you are not capable of developing a cogent strategy, it is not a bad idea to delay proceeding with some of the half-baked ideas you do develop. Unfortunately there has been a time cost to this confusing inaction, as the one commitment that ISM has never missed is payroll and and "Investors Relations" contracts, as well as options granting to those involved.